[100 Emerging Women Leaders] How Kavitha Kanaparthi’s Soulverse is creating decentralised identity solutions

A life-altering accident at 16 years changed Kavitha Kanaparthi's life forever. While driving a bike in the middle of a fog, she was thrown off by an incoming bus. She suffered several broken bones, amnesia, and vertigo after the incident.

It ended her plans of becoming a pilot, and Kanaparthi chose to become an engineer instead. 

Growing up in Gandrai village in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district (now NTR district) she recalls her daily life revolving around farming, family, and education. Her mother was a nurse and her father, a doctor, started a school in the village so his children could have an education. 

Her sisters chose medicine but Kanaparthi decided to go in a different direction. She migrated with her family to the US and enrolled for a BS in Electrical Engineering at Washington University in St Louis. 

Road to entrepreneurship

Kanaparthi chose to start on her own at a time when working with the Big 5 companies was the ultimate dream for engineers. She incorporated Design Net, a tech startup in her last semester and continued building it after completing her course. 

“Initially, I worked on building and setting up computer networks–more on the hardware side, building servers. The security factor made it easy to convince people. Initially, I bagged small projects. We managed to land a big client, Chase Manhattan Bank, which pushed us into the big league,” she tells HerStory.

However, upheaval in her personal life led her to shut down the company and return to India. Not wanting to give up on her entrepreneurial ambitions, Kanaparthi built Kafin Consulting, an internet-based software platform in Bengaluru in 2000, partnering with companies like Hitachi, Nortel Networks and IBM.

However, her second startup, which started well, was derailed due to a different problem altogether. 

“We almost took the company to an IPO but on the day I was interviewed for the BSE listing in 2001, the Anand Rathi scandal broke out and everything came to a standstill. All the listings they had approved were pulled back. I lost a lot of money,” she shares. 

Broken but not defeated, she returned to the US soon after, joined the FBI as an agent. It was a trying time for Kanaparthi personally as she was in the middle of a long drawn-out divorce that started in 2003 and ended in 2015. It also put an end to her career at the FBI.

“I had to stay in India longer than I had anticipated. With all the losses I was facing, I resorted to running, my lifelong partner. I wrote a blog about it and this led to people asking me to organise long-distance races,” she says.

This led her to establish Globeracers in 2019, becoming a turning point for ultra-running in India. From 2009 to  2015, Globeracers organised over 35 races, only taking a break when Covid stopped all outdoor activities.  Some of the best runners in the country came out of the Globeracers stable, and it plans to get back to trails in 2025. 

In between all these, Kanaparthi kept abreast of new technologies and also studied architecture and designed spaces. Her journey culminated in 2021, with the founding of Soulverse.

Decentralised identity solutions

Soulverse is a next-generation decentralised identity creation infrastructure that aims to make decentralised identities universally accessible.

Kanaparthi elaborates on the concept. “In the current decentralised identity landscape, organisations are offering the identity, but have not built a complete end-to-end solution that will ensure that we do not create data silos… Through Soulverse I aim to address this gap.”

With offices in Michigan and Dehradun, Soulverse offers technology-based identity products, including:

• SoulID: A single ID that works to receive both credentials and cryptocurrency.
• SoulWrapper: Ensures interoperability of identity networks. 
• SoulScan: Hack proof biometric-first key generation.
• SoulWallet: A multifunction wallet that holds both credentials and assets. 
• Soulogram: Privacy based authentication across Web3 ecosystems and platforms. 

“Soulverse ensures that data doesn't become siloed pockets of information, that it is accessible to anyone, anywhere across the globe in a very secure and private manner. In simple terms, you have all the tools that you require to hold your data, share your data and secure your data,” she explains.

For example, if one applies for a driver's licence in India, they can receive it in their Soul Wallet. If they are travelling to another country and want to apply for a temporary driving licence there or an international driving licence, they can receive it in the same wallet from another government. 

Soulverse works on products for B2C, B2B and B2B2C sectors.  Its revenue model comprises subscription to the wallet, transaction fees, Platform-as-a-service (PAAS) and product API revenue.

To sum it up, Soulverse offers the right to own and protect one’s data at an individual level.

“For enterprises, it eases compliance and cost of operations based on what products they incorporate, and how they map their transition to blockchain products and services,” she says. 

Soulverse partners with IIT Hyderabad, TDeFi, Quill Audits, and India Blockchain Alliance for research and technical collaboration. Recently, the startup raised $500,000 in a private sale and is seeking a patent for its biometric solution.

Breaking barriers

Kanaparthi admits it’s difficult being a woman entrepreneur.

“Though we laugh off some of the misconceptions and the barriers and focus on the bulls-eye, one cannot ignore the misogyny, the barriers and the intentional withholding of support and resources to women across all industries, geographies and all sizes of businesses,” she says.

Her advice for other women entrepreneurs comes from her own experiences.

“Stand your ground, stay on the course, and believe that you are no less and at times, better than those around you who are competing to be in your shoes. Build the resources if you must, on your own and support those around you by building a network for women. Find an anchor. Build and inspire,” she adds.

(The story has been updated to correct a typo.)